Rudolf Margolius
In Memoriam
JUDr Rudolf Margolius 31st August 1913, Prague – 3rd December 1952, Prague
Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade, Prague, Czechoslovakia 1949 – 1952
The Times, 2nd June 1949
JUDr Rudolf Margolius 31st August 1913, Prague – 3rd December 1952, Prague
Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade, Prague, Czechoslovakia 1949 – 1952
The Times, 2nd June 1949
In London in 1949 Rudolf Margolius negotiated and signed several important economic and financial agreements with Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour and National Service, and Sir William Strang, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who represented the British Government. The agreements through Margolius' effort were weighted in favour of the Czechoslovak trade rather than the British trade. Czechoslovak government was satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations and requested that the effort of all those who had participated would be appreciated. (Jan Kuklík, Do poslední pence, Nakladatelství Karolinum, Praha, 2007, p. 286)
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"Never in my life have I heard or recognised a nightingale's song. Now under the window, outside, I hear every day, but mainly in the morning when the sun rises and in the evening at sunset, the beautiful solo song of the nightingale ..."
Letter from prison, 24th April 1952
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"Margolius … survived the Nazi concentration camps and after the war enrolled into the Communist Party from the real conviction: that never again would be repeated what had happened in the past, that no one would be persecuted for his or hers racial, national or social origins, in order for all people to be equal, in order to establish an era of real freedom. A couple of years later the comrades succeeded in what the Nazis had not managed: they killed him." Pavel Tigrid, Kapesní průvodce inteligentní ženy po vlastním osudu, 68 Publishers, Toronto 1988, p. 97
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The Scotsman reported on 16th May 1968:
"Czechoslovak President Ludvík Svoboda has awarded the Order of the Republic posthumously to Rudolf Margolius, former Deputy Foreign Trade Minister executed in 1952 after the Stalinist Slánský Trial. Margolius was accused of being a member of the “anti-party conspiratorial centre,” and was sentenced to death along with former Party Secretary Rudolf Slánský and nine others on November 27, 1952. Slánský and the others were judicially rehabilitated by the Supreme Court in 1963. All had been accused of high treason, espionage and sabotage and organising a Jewish plot to bring down the régime."
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"Never in my life have I heard or recognised a nightingale's song. Now under the window, outside, I hear every day, but mainly in the morning when the sun rises and in the evening at sunset, the beautiful solo song of the nightingale ..."
Letter from prison, 24th April 1952
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"Margolius … survived the Nazi concentration camps and after the war enrolled into the Communist Party from the real conviction: that never again would be repeated what had happened in the past, that no one would be persecuted for his or hers racial, national or social origins, in order for all people to be equal, in order to establish an era of real freedom. A couple of years later the comrades succeeded in what the Nazis had not managed: they killed him." Pavel Tigrid, Kapesní průvodce inteligentní ženy po vlastním osudu, 68 Publishers, Toronto 1988, p. 97
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The Scotsman reported on 16th May 1968:
"Czechoslovak President Ludvík Svoboda has awarded the Order of the Republic posthumously to Rudolf Margolius, former Deputy Foreign Trade Minister executed in 1952 after the Stalinist Slánský Trial. Margolius was accused of being a member of the “anti-party conspiratorial centre,” and was sentenced to death along with former Party Secretary Rudolf Slánský and nine others on November 27, 1952. Slánský and the others were judicially rehabilitated by the Supreme Court in 1963. All had been accused of high treason, espionage and sabotage and organising a Jewish plot to bring down the régime."
Selection of books about Rudolf Margolius
Heda Margolius Kovály and Helena Třeštíková:
Hitler, Stalin and I: An Oral History, DoppelHouse Press, Los Angeles, 2018, 160 pages, ISBN 978-0-9987770-0-9 hc,, 978-0-9978184-7-5 pb.
Heda Margolius Kovály:
Under A Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968, Granta, London, 2012, 192 pages, ISBN 978-1-84708-476-7.
Heda Margolius Kovály:
Under A Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968, Holmes & Meier, New York, 1997, 194 pages, ISBN 978-0-8419-1377-6.
Heda Margoliová Kovályová:
Na vlastní kůži, Edice Paměť, Academia, Praha 2012, 192 str., ISBN 978-80-200-2038-3.
Ivan Margolius:
Reflections of Prague: Journeys through the 20th century, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 2006, 318 pages, 58 illustrations, ISBN 0470-02219-1.
Ivan Margolius:
Praha za zrcadlem: Putování 20. stoletím, Argo, Praha, 2007, 345 stránek, 41 ilustrací, ISBN 978-80-7203-947-0.
Jan Kuklík:
Do poslední pence, Nakladatelství Karolinum, Praha, 2007, 472 stránek, ISBN 978-80-246-1332-1.
Copyright © Ivan Margolius 2021